The Gemini 3 spacecraft flown by Gus Grissom and John Young in 1965 was nicknamed Molly Brown.
Gemini 3 launched on 23 March 1965 and completed three orbits during the first crewed flight of NASA’s Gemini program. Grissom and Young tested the spacecraft’s maneuverability, including a controlled orbital change, before splashing down in the South Atlantic.
The nickname referred to the musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown, a playful allusion to Grissom’s earlier Mercury flight. His Mercury capsule Liberty Bell 7 sank after its hatch opened prematurely during splashdown in 1961. NASA initially disliked informal spacecraft names, so Gemini 3’s nickname was not prominently used in official mission communications.
Molly Brown is often confused with Liberty Bell 7, which was Grissom’s earlier Mercury spacecraft, or with later Gemini names such as Agena target vehicles. Gemini 3 helped demonstrate that astronauts could control and operate a two-person spacecraft in orbit.